Pretty good! I had a little moment with this one outside of the intended game, as I realised retroachievements had an achievement for beating each robot master buster only, and decided that sounded really fun, and you know what? It was! The mega-compact boss areas lend themselves really well to a tight back and forth combat that’s more engaging than just cheesing it with the correct weapon, and it forced me to be a better player and survive longer. And by freeing up my weapons I got to use them more in stages, which made those feel less limited. A winning strategy that I might do again in the future.
The 4 plus 4 approach to Robot Masters feels stronger here for the second wave all getting stages (and passwords, thankfully). It substantially fleshes the game out over its predecessor and gives the new dev team more space to work out what the hell a Mega Man game should even be. I feel like they do a fairly decent, if limited, job on these. Like none of these levels are memorable, and they all sound terrible, but they feel like Mega Man in a way that satisfies enough to keep you playing.
Wily is… too easy in this, and bizarrely small, though not as easy as Quint, a sub-boss so easy that he doesn’t even get a health bar. Still, you get a hilarious pogo stick/piledriver, which is a fun reward that late in the game.
Finally, a shout out to Rush, who once again gets to be good AND not be clothing, which is every dog’s dream. I enjoy seeing him next to Mega Man on the weapon get screen, one of the cutest in the franchise. I don’t want to keep judging these games by how they use Rush, but I’m quickly realising that he’s the canary down the coal mine for Mega Man. Happy dog, happy life. Three stars.
The 4 plus 4 approach to Robot Masters feels stronger here for the second wave all getting stages (and passwords, thankfully). It substantially fleshes the game out over its predecessor and gives the new dev team more space to work out what the hell a Mega Man game should even be. I feel like they do a fairly decent, if limited, job on these. Like none of these levels are memorable, and they all sound terrible, but they feel like Mega Man in a way that satisfies enough to keep you playing.
Wily is… too easy in this, and bizarrely small, though not as easy as Quint, a sub-boss so easy that he doesn’t even get a health bar. Still, you get a hilarious pogo stick/piledriver, which is a fun reward that late in the game.
Finally, a shout out to Rush, who once again gets to be good AND not be clothing, which is every dog’s dream. I enjoy seeing him next to Mega Man on the weapon get screen, one of the cutest in the franchise. I don’t want to keep judging these games by how they use Rush, but I’m quickly realising that he’s the canary down the coal mine for Mega Man. Happy dog, happy life. Three stars.